Little Red One, Daughter of the Norse
by c1rca
Summary: Adam Milligan soon realizes there is something about Rowen, the mysterious redheaded hunter who pressed a knife to his throat the first time they met, that doesn't make sense. And he's determined to know what. AU & SPOILERS 5X18 AND ONWARD.
1. Chapter 1: Knife of the Underworld

Okay, so I'm not entirely sure I am continuing on this story. I kind of just wanted to see if I'd get some feedback on it before I continue writing on it.  
So yeah, give me some feedback on whether I should continue or not. I know it's not much to base it on because not much happens in this chapter,  
but it's better than nothing and I'm hoping that hey, maybe I'll make a splash on your reading experience of today. Or you know.. not.. IDK.. :P

* * *

**Chapter 1: Knife of the Underworld**

When Adam Milligan felt a knife being pressed against his throat as he was leaving the men's bathroom at the Bay Café in Sunset Beach, California, he was getting _really_ tired of people trying to kill him. Not only had an angel mere hours earlier tried to kill him by giving him stage four stomach cancer, an archangel almost burnt out his eyes by coming down from heaven when Dean Winchester almost agreed to be his vessel (but as it turned out, was lying), and nah, it didn't stop there. He'd recently been yanked out of heaven too, after spending a year stuck in his prom. He'd been dead, a ghoul had eaten him alive. He was really starting to feel fed up with people wanting him dead.

"Who are you and what the fuck are you doing with the Winchesters?", The voice, which much to Adam's surprise was female, demanded to know as she pressed the knife harder against his throat - it hurt.

"I'm their brother", He blurted out without much thought, not considering the person currently threatening his life could be a demon who'd only be thrilled to get someone with John Winchester's blood running through them out of the way.

"Bullshit", The female released the knife from his throat and spun him around by grabbing his jacket and jerking him so he faced her, "I knew John Winchester, and he only has two son's."

Adam didn't know what to say, no one had known John Winchester had an extra son, so it didn't surprise him that she didn't know either. He stayed quiet instead, and glanced out into the café which had gone strangely empty since he had entered the bathroom, but he could see parts of Sam and Dean sitting in a booth on the other side of the café from the bathrooms. They couldn't see him from here.

"Now", She pressed the knife against his throat again, "Tell me who you are, and why the hell you're hanging out with them."

"I already told you.."

She groaned and glared at him, "I know, but I don't believe you."

"Well, ask them yourself then", Adam breathed out keeping his eyes fixated on her's, they were a quite interesting color actually, light blue, almost icy, he had never seen anything like it before, "Who are you?"

"None of your business", She sounded even more pissed off than moments before, but she released the knife from his throat and pushed it down into a knife holster that hung to her belt.

She brushed past him and out into the café, and Adam wondered if maybe Dean would just stand up and shoot her or something, actually, he almost hoped for it. But he didn't, instead Dean got out of the booth as soon as the woman came into his line of sight, and smiled at her. Smiled? She had almost just tried to kill him!

"Rowen!", He called out in surprise and wrapped his much larger frame around her much more petite one, "What the hell are you doing here?"

The woman, or Rowen as Dean had called her, pushed away from his hug and pulled out the knife again.

"We need to get out of here", She gestured to the café which was actually altogether empty now, not even a waitress in sight, "They are coming for you."

"Who are coming for us?", Adam's eyes widened, fearing that some angel was going to come and roast him, or something.

"No one gave you permission to speak", Rowen interrupted him with a tone of voice that sent chills down Adam's spine, but only made Dean grin.

Sam got out of his seat clumsily and grabbed the keys to the Impala of the table and threw them to Dean who caught them with ease.

"Let's go."

There was a silence among them as they hurried out of the deserted café and towards the car parked not far from the entrance. They hadn't made it much more than a few steps out the door though when Sam suddenly screamed to them to watch out, and in a few seconds time demons had surrounded them. Adam watched amazed as Rowen threw the knife towards one of the demons, and it hit the creature right between the eyes. The demon fell backwards screaming as it burned to ashes.

All three of the Winchester brothers seemed equally surprised by the knife's abilities. Adam had been told about Sam's own demon killing knife which he had acquired from the demon Ruby, but he had never seen one in action, and this wasn't even that very knife. There was no time to question the weapon though, because there was demons trying to rip their hearts out. Rowen simply stepped over the burning ashes of the demon and snatched the knife out of the skull which had nearly burnt up completely. She had barely straightened her body out completely before another demon raced for her and she stabbed it in the same place as the other demon - right between the eyes.

It didn't take long with the three hunter's abilities before all the demons were dead and Dean ushered them into the car after Rowen warned them that more were coming. No one said anything until they were on the highway heading out of California.

"What the hell was that, Rowen?", Dean shouted hysterically from the driver's seat as he sped a lot faster than was legal.

"This isn't the time", The woman muttered and tilted her head back releasing a yawn, "Just drive for now."

* * *

Rowen knew she should have just killed them at that café, for releasing Lucifer out of his cage. They were considered traitors among the hunters now, for bringing down the apocalypse on all of them. Rowen was no different, she'd loved those boys to death for what felt like an eternity, but there had been many times in the past few months she had wanted to seek them out and kill them because of the traitors that they were. She had heard the stories, oh boy had she heard the stories. Sam's whatever it was with a demon, had he gone completely nuts since the last time they'd seen eachother? It had been years, sure, but it still puzzled Rowen how everything had changed.

She had stumbled upon them by mistake in Sunset Beach. Rowen had only been traveling through the small coastal community when realizing there were demons close. She had followed them, and found the Bay Café with the two Winchesters and a third unknown male inside. She could have just killed them, but it probably wouldn't have done much good anyway, the angels would just yank them back to life again.

"It's Rowen, right?", She looked up from the room service menu which she had been absentmindedly going through without any intention of ordering anything, she just needed a distraction.

Rowen nodded at the youngest illegimate brother of the Winchester's, his name was Adam if she had heard right. She had been skeptical at first, because she had known John a long time, and he had never told her about having anymore children than Sam and Dean. She felt a bit disappointed, as if the man hadn't trusted her enough to tell her his secret.

"That's an odd name for a woman", Adam continued and pursed his lips.

"Some would consider Adam an odd name as well, what's your point?"

"None really, it just doesn't sound like a feminine name."

Rowen shrugged her shoulders and looked down at the room service menu again, "It means 'little red one', my father thought it was fitting because of my hair and figure."

There was a moment of silence during which Rowen looked out through the motel room window. There was a storm coming, it was so intense you could feel it in the air. The rain was already whipping the windows hard, which was why they had stopped at the sleazy motel right of the interstate somewhere in northern Colorado. That, and because Dean was almost falling asleep behind the wheel and wouldn't let Sam, Adam nor Rowen drive.

"Your mom was killed by ghouls, am I right?", Rowen looked over at Adam again, who visibly tensed up at the mentioning of the incident which it was clear he remembered very well.

"I was too. I was in heaven until the angels pulled me out of there, that is."

"If it's any consolation", She breathed out, "My father was also taken by a ghoul. I was much younger than you though, only a child. I know what it's like to lose a parent, and have the other one absent for your whole life. I've only met my mother a handful of times."

It was rare for Rowen to reveal such personal details to strangers like Adam, but there was something about him that made her want to comfort him. She watched him with interest as he bit his lowerlip and mumbled something inaudible that she could only make out the words 'sorry' and 'brothers' from. She felt for him, she really did. Rowen's dad had been taken early in her life many years ago, and her mother.. well, let's just say she had never really been there.

"At least you have one parent who's still alive", Adam muttered and Rowen glared at him, could he be more unappreciative? She was just trying to help.

* * *

Adam hadn't really noticed it until Rowen told him about the meaning of her name, but her hair was _really_ red. He'd seen redheads before, of course, but nothing like this. She probably dyed it, he concluded to himself. It wasn't Rowen's incredibly red hair that fascinated Adam though, it was how she looked. Her hair was long he had seen before, somewhere past her shoulders, but she had tied it up like a bun on her head now. It seemed dirty, and the bangs that went straight across her forehead looked greasy and hung in stripes towards her eyes. In general she looked dirty, actually. Her jeans were ripped at several places and had bloodstains on equally many places that apparently hadn't gone out in the wash, though he probably didn't want to know the last time she had washed them. She wore a leather jacket she'd now thrown on the bed next to her that Adam had seen was lined on the inside with various weapons and necessities, and underneath a pale blue longsleeve shirt that had dirty stains here and there. Actually, the shirt matched her eyes really good when he thought about it. But, even though her appearance overall was dirty, and it was weird, she still managed to look beautiful.

"Stop staring at me, it's making me uncomfortable", Adam suddenly had to snap out of his own thoughts when evidently Rowen had realized he was kind of staring at her.

"I wasn't...", He began but she cut him off with a small smile.

"Of course you weren't."

He didn't know what to say, and honestly he was too tired to argue with someone. He wasn't exactly sleeping well lately, his new life was already giving him nightmares, so he had tried to stay away from sleeping. But apparently he was no different from both Sam and Dean, who had explained they didn't sleep much either, especially not the last months, what with the apocalypse looming over them and all that.

"I'm going to go and talk to Dean", Rowen threw the room service menu she had in her hands on the bed and then got off it while grabbing her jacket and slipped it on.

Sam and Dean had the room next to Rowen and Adam. He had been a bit uncomfortable about sharing a room with a person who had pressed a knife to his throat twice in one night at first, but he really hadn't had any say in the matter. Because Sam and Dean always shared a room, and it would be too cramped if they tried to shove four people into one of the small crappy motel rooms. He was starting to ease up around Rowen though, she wasn't that bad, just a bit weird. He'd seen what that knife could do though, and wasn't going anywhere close to it ever again. Okay, so he wasn't a demon, but it was still a knife, and he was made of flesh and blood.

"You should try to get some sleep", She called over her shoulder as she exited the room and shut the door, leaving Adam to delve in silence.

Right, sleep. The thought wasn't all too tempting to him, so he settled for going over the room service menu Rowen had been reading, hoping that she or one of his brothers would make him company in a while. All of the recent things that had happened was making him paranoid, he just knew it.


	2. Chapter 2: Scars of the past

I decided that I'm going to write this into a short story, maybe five or six chapters. Something like that. Please leave reviews on what I can fix with it, I'm kind of just fumbling around in the dark right now, haha. Also, the phrase in the end of the chapter, I'm not gonna tell you what language it is in. But if you're smart enough, you should be able to figure it out. ;) However, it literally translates into '_There will fall many, because this war will never end happy. But never they, please, never they_', in case you wanted to know.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Scars of the past**

"So, you care to explain what happened back at that café?", Dean was making large gestures with his arms as he spoke with a raised voice, not quite screaming, but not quite talking normally either, "Like, you know for starters, what the hell you were even doing there?"

Rowen sighed and rolled her eyes at him, "I was passing through town. I've been down in San Diego looking through some disappearances, but it turned out to be nothing, just some ordinary psycho. I was going up to San Francisco when I started following some demons through Sunset Beach, and they literally led me to you idiots."

"Come on, Rowen, don't be like that", Sam spoke up from where he was sitting on one of the beds in the room, looking like he was taking out his frustration on the poor shotgun in his hands, "We just.."

"Just what? What excuse do you have for starting the fucking apocalypse?", She clenched her fists angrily, "I should have just killed you at that damn café when I had the chance. Actually I am surprised both of you are still alive."

Dean pursed his lips, as if he was restraining himself from blowing up in anger.

"You don't know anything", His younger brother said coldly and turned back to the shotgun that he was cleaning more ferociously as the clock ticked onwards.

"I know a lot more than you think", Rowen responded with an equally cold tone, "I thought you of all people should know not to trust a demon, much less bang one, but hey, as long as they claim to be on the good side of things, and let you suck their blood, it's okay, isn't that so, Sammy?"

That was clearly the bursting of the bubble for Sam who flew off the bed and had Rowen pinned against the wall with the shotgun pressed tightly against her throat so that when she tried to breath all that came out was choking and desperate attempts to get air into her lungs.

"SAMMY!", Dean pushed Sam away from Rowen before she could choke completely and he stumbled to the side, crashing into the bedside table.

"You should learn to control your little brother, Dean", Rowen had grabbed the knife out of it's holster and was holding it defensively while rubbing her throat which ached from where the shotgun had hit her.

"Everyone just shut the fuck up!", Dean had gotten enough of the fighting going on between the hunters in the room, "What the hell happened to you Rowen?"

"What's that supposed to mean?", She glanced over at him only for a few seconds taking her eyes away from Sam who was still semi-leaning against the bedside table.

"We don't see you for years-"

"It's not like you called or something and said, 'oh hey, Rowen, just thought I'd let you know I went to hell and an angel yanked me out, and now we're trying to stop this guy, you might have heard of him, his name is Lucifer, from breaking out of his cage where he's been safely stashed away so he won't you know, wipe out mankind'."

"-and then you show up with that.. that knife thing, whatever it is, and act like a fucking bitch."

"Where'd you get that thing anyway?", Sam had kept his eyes fixated on the knife ever since Rowen pulled it out of it's holster mere moments earlier.

"I snagged it from a demon, a demon classier than yours, Sammy", Rowen responded quickly, almost a bit too quick, and grinded her teeth together, something both Sam and Dean knew she did when she was lying - they had after all known her since well, forever it felt like.

"You're ly-", The younger brother started with triumph, but Dean cut him off before he could finish the sentence.

"Can we just stop? Stop the damn fighting already", He breathed, sounding anxious and tired, which Rowen was still not used to hearing him sound like, but she assumed that with the current events, it wasn't like he could get any good sleep.

She slipped the knife back into it's holster and sighed tiredly, "I'm going to check on your... brother, damn, that sounds so weird to say."

"Tell me about it", Dean sighed as well and sat down on the bed.

"Has your angel buddy branded his ribs yet?", Rowen asked, not paying attention to how the brothers both visibly froze and looked at her strangely.

There was a long silence before Sam finally spoke up, sounding a lot calmer than he had done minutes earlier, "How do you know about that?"

"I take that as a yes, and please, everyone knows. You two may have been in your own little hunting world for a while now, but outside those invisible walls shielding you from everyone else, there's other hunters, and they talk. _We_ talk", She responded hesitantly as she turned away from the brothers and gripped the doorknob, "And Sam.. Dean, you may think that I am being a bitch, but I am being nice comparing to what some hunters are saying. Just so you know."

* * *

Adam flipped over on the bed when he heard it open, and watched Rowen enter, looking more tired and worn-out than when he had last seen her. It was evident that there had been some word abuse and general fighting during her talk with his brothers. Not only because of how tired she suddenly looked, but also because he had heard the shouting through the paper thin walls, and the thumps of bodies hitting objects close to the walls.

"That bad, eh?", He mumbled in a questioning tone, and Rowen chuckled, almost bitterly, to his surprise.

"Please, that was nothing. I know those two like the back of my own hand, and that was a mere argument compared to fights we've had in the past", She threw the leather jacket on the chair next to the window and pulled at the blinds to block anyone from looking inside.

"Yeah, about that...", Adam began, not sure how to phrase it, "Exactly how do you know Sam and Dean?"

"I've been around since they were kids", Rowen responded without looking over at him as she started unclasping the knife holster from her jeans.

"You mean you grew up with them?", He asked curiously, not taking notice to her strange use of words when responding to his question.

"Something like that, I guess you could say."

She sat down on the bed next to his and fidgeted with the knife in her hand. It still sent chills down Adam's spine when he saw it, maybe because he'd had it against his throat twice by now, and with the temper that Rowen seemed to have, he doubted it had been the last.

"Were your parents hunters?", He continued and Rowen shook her head, "Really? How'd you get into well.. the business?"

"A ghoul killed my dad when I was a kid, like I told you before, and when I got older I guess I just wanted revenge on what killed him", She shrugged her shoulders and smiled with the corner of her mouth, a pressed smile that didn't seem the very least real.

"Did you?"

"Get revenge on the monster that killed my dad?"

Adam nodded and Rowen shrugged again, "I don't know. A long time ago I broke up a ghoul nest in the area where my dad was taken, but it's hard to say if the ghoul who killed my dad was actually one of them."

He made an 'O' shape with his mouth and fidgeted slightly with the hem of his shirt, "What about your mom?"

Rowen tensed up slightly at the mentioning of her mother and just shook her head.

"Nope, I've been pretty much on my own for my whole life. I've met her a few times, but most of the time I spent growing up with my paternal grandparents", She answered uneasily and then sighed before straightening up, "What about you?"

Adam pursed his lips and lowered his head.

"It was mostly just my mom and me. I only met John a handful of times, never knew what he was until the ghoul took me and...", His voice trailed off, he didn't want to say it out loud even though he knew it was true. Damnit, he missed his mother, "Did you know John very well?"

She smiled genuinely for the first time since the conversation had begun, almost like she was remembering something that made her happy, something she'd gone through with his dad.

"Almost better than Sam and Dean", She said after a moment of silence, "I still remember hearing about his death. I dropped everything in my hands just like that and was there for his funeral, if that's what you would want to call it."

There was more silence during which neither of them knew exactly what to say. Adam shifted uncomfortably in his place and itched his hand, at which Rowen looked up at him.

"He was only protecting you, y'know", She said in a low voice and Adam snorted as she looked down again and dragged her fingers along the knife's harsh edge.

"Yeah, that's what people keep telling me", He muttered below his breath, "Didn't work out very well, now did it?"

Rowen shrugged, "You're very lucky that at least you got to spend that much time being normal. Sometimes not knowing what's out there is the best thing."

"I don't think Sam an- my _brothers_, would agree with you", Adam scratched the back of his head as he spoke and pursed his lips, it still felt strange calling them his brothers.

"Sam and Dean don't know everything, you know", The redhead's voice turned to a sudden seriousness which surprised Adam a bit, "There's things out there.. things that shouldn't exist because their mere existence is so.. so horrible."

"Uhm, like.. what sort of things?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it", The strange way that her voice had changed to such a serious level disappeared just as quickly as it had come, "We should really try to sleep. Knowing Sam he will want to be hitting the road before we've even had a blink of sleep."

Adam stared at her, not sure what to say, "I.. Yeah, okay. Um, good night."

He couldn't put his finger exactly on what it was about Rowen, but she was weird in a way he couldn't wrap his head around. And it wasn't like he was stupid or anything, prior to that ghoul took him as a snack a year earlier he had been a pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin.

* * *

He awoke a few hours later in a dark and empty room. Adam quickly realized that the bed next to his was empty and he sat up in the bed and rubbed his sleepy eyes. Where was Rowen? He was just about to get out of bed when he saw the door opened ever so slightly. Curiosity got the best of him and he silently tip toed towards it, making sure he didn't make any sounds as he opened it a bit more to peek outside.

What he saw didn't at first strike him as strange. Rowen was standing leaned against the railing that overlooked the parking lot. They were on the second floor. She was smoking a cigarette and held a cellphone pressed tightly against her ear. Adam noted that she wasn't wearing her jeans anymore and the many scars in different faded versions that ran along her legs sent shivers down his spine. They criss-crossed into patterns of all kinds, and some just looked random. He couldn't make out that many of them because the sun hadn't gone up enough for it to be light outside, and from the distance he was standing. They looked like the wounds that had been there before had hurt. _What_ had happened to this girl?

"Please, don't do this", She mumbled into the phone sounding nothing short of desperate, "They'll never agree to what you're offering, and if you kill them the angels will just bring them back. You know they will."

Adam almost held his breath as he tried to stay silent and pressed himself tightly against the wall so that he could see Rowen, but if she were to turn his way he'd easily be able to get out of her view. Who was she talking to? He was getting an uncanny feeling in the pit of his stomach that who Rowen was talking about were his older brothers.

"Don't come after me, you'll never find me", Rowen's voice went up ever so slightly as it turned almost angry but she quickly quieted down to mumblings and whispers again, "Impossible, she'd never do that. I don't care that you granted me this god damn curse, I'm not selling out my friends."

He watched her body move in the dull morning light as she slammed her hand into the railing and it clinked louder than what seemed normal, which made Adam jump in surprise.

"NO!", Rowen's voice went up again, "_þar vili falla margr, síðan sási ófriðr vili aldri endi sæll. Eða aldri þeir, líka, aldri þeir_."

He froze when she changed to another language which he didn't understand one bit of. It sounded nothing like languages he had ever heard before. For a moment Adam wondered if Rowen was going to cry. Her body started trembling as she snapped the cellphone shut and clenched it in her tiny hand, and threw the burnt up cigarette sailing across the railing and probably onto the asphalt of the parking lot a story below. She curled over the railing as if she was in pain and gasped out an agonizing sound before running her hands through the red hair that spread across her shoulders and the upper part of her back.

What was he supposed to do? Go out there and maybe... comfort her? It didn't seem like a very good idea because then she'd find out he had been spying on her, and considering what Adam had seen of Rowen's temper so far, well, he didn't like that knife of her's. Even if it didn't seem like she had it on her at the moment.

Adam watched her stand leaned over the railing with her head leaned in her hands for maybe another minute before she stood up straight and turned back towards the door. It made Adam quickly scramble back to his bed and he barely had time to duck in under the covers and feign being asleep when she slipped inside into the darkness of the room. He couldn't fall asleep again, and spent the remaining time until the sun came up completely just listening to Rowen's jagged breathing.


	3. Chapter 3: Friends or Enemies

He must have eventually fallen asleep, because when his eyes fluttered open once more, the room was more or less bustling with movement. Adam sat up groggily from just awakening and saw Rowen rushing into the room carrying two cans of Coca Cola and hamburgers enwrapped in paper. She threw one of each towards him and he managed to catch the burger, but the can of coke instead landed with a soft thud next to him.

"What time is it?", He asked as he unwrapped the hamburger and felt his stomach growl in anticipation for the food.

Rowen shrugged and sank down onto her own bed, "I'm not sure, around seven, maybe?"

Adam flinched when he realized she still hadn't put on her jeans and in the daylight her scars looked far more scary than they had done in the dull morning light when the sun hadn't completely rose up onto the sky. He felt his breathing getting heavier as she crossed her legs beneath herself and unwrapped her own hamburger.

"Um, okay..", Adam mumbled distraught and looked down at his food.

They ate in silence, but Adam couldn't help but feel his eyes wander to her legs more than once. If had Rowen noticed that he did so, she wasn't saying anything about it. He was getting an itching feeling in his body that he would eventually have to ask her about them though, but how does one ask that sort of question?

"We need to get going soon", He looked up from his hamburger when Sam peeked his head into the room, "There's a storm coming."

Rowen nodded silently, "You don't think we noticed? The rain was almost breaking the windows last night."

Her voice was surprisingly cold when she spoke and he looked down on his nearly finished piece of food. It was clear that she hadn't cooled down from the fight Adam had heard through the walls the previous night. He wondered to himself if she always took a long time to cool down after fights, or if it was only Sam who ticked her off more than usual.

"Whatever, just get dressed so we can leave", Sam muttered and left the room before Rowen could counter with something.

"God, he annoys me sometimes", Rowen growled under her breath and crunched the wrapping that had previously encased the hamburger into a tiny ball in her hands, "We've never really gotten along."

"Why is that?", Adam questioned cautiously as he put the last piece of his hamburger in his mouth and made a ball out of the wrapping.

She shrugged nonchalantly and got off her bed, "I'm not sure, our personalities have always clashed, I guess. I've always gotten better along with Dean, out of the two."

Adam nodded, not that he could understand how anyone could get along better with Dean than Sam. Then again, Rowen had known his brothers for a longer time than himself, which though sounded incredibly weird when you said it out loud, was true. She probably knew them better than he did.

"You should really get dressed though, because we need to leave", Rowen said after a moment of silence and slid over to the other side of her bed and grabbed her duffelbag from the floor.

He nodded again, and got off the bed quietly. He didn't mean to, but he couldn't help but watch Rowen change in the corner of his eye as he got dressed himself. It was hard _not_ to look. Adam was just buttoning his jeans when he flinched unexpectedly as she peeled the longsleeve shirt over her head with her back towards him. The sight sent chills down his spine for what felt like the tenth time since he had met her. The type of scars that Adam had seen on her legs, though covered now by her torn jeans, were not only present there, but on her torso as well. They were all in the same fashion as the ones on Rowen's legs, but the ones on her back seemed longer, but also - and this made Adam shudder - more recent. The length and placement made the word 'whip' come to mind, but it wasn't a very reassuring thought.

"Adam.. what are you-", Rowen had turned around to face him and her voice trailed to an abrupt end when she looked like she realized what he was staring at, "Oh.."

Rowen looked like she hadn't thought about the scars for a very, very, very long time, or at least that was the impression her pursed lips and anxious eyes were giving off. At any other moment, and with any other girl, Adam might have focused more on the fact that she wasn't wearing a shirt over her bra. However, this was Rowen who could probably kill him before he'd even had the chance to realize it, and she had scary scars leaping in weird patterns on her whole body. That alone was scattering Adam's thoughts.

"Who did that to you?", Adam asked the question that had been nagging him for hours now.

She slipped on the gray wifebeater in her hands that had a washed out print on it featuring a rose on the front.

"It's a long story", She finally said after a long moment of silence, her voice full of dread and anxiety, "Too long to be told right now."

"Are you joking?"

"Why would I be joking? In case you haven't realized, there's a fucking apocalypse coming upon us, and that's far more important than this", Rowen snapped and yanked out a flannel button-up shirt forcefully from her duffelbag, "Just get dressed and forget what you saw."

Adam was truly speechless for the first time in a long time. He watched in amazement and annoyance as she put on the button-up and threw her lightblue longsleeve into the duffelbag and closed the zipper. He muttered something below his breath and then continued to get dressed. He'd have to ask Dean about it, or maybe even Sam, though Sam seemed to be so pissed off at Rowen right now he wasn't sure he was prepared to get into all that.

* * *

Rowen's heart had felt like it had dislodged and got stuck in her throat, whatever heart she had left after so many years of hunting, when it had dawned upon her the things Adam had seen. It wasn't like she wasn't aware of their existence, they had _hurt_ to get after all, but she had since long pushed them to the back of her mind. Most of the time she didn't even think of them, it was like their existence had faded in her eyes, but Adam's acknowledgement of them had made them appear just as flaring red as they had been when she'd gotten them placed there permanently.

"Are you ready to go?", She asked him trying to make her voice sound normal, but with the strained tension between them at the moment, it wasn't an easy task at hand.

He nodded unenthusiastically and Rowen rolled her eyes.

"Stop being such a sourface", She muttered and he sent a glare her way that almost made Rowen smile because it was amusing, "I'll tell you one day if we ever become friends."

_In your dreams_.

"Really?", Adam looked up with just a glint of hope in his eyes, or maybe it was skepticism.., "You wouldn't lie, would you?"

_Are you fucking stupid? Of course I'm lying_.

"It's just not a story I would go around and tell anyone, for obvious reasons", Rowen started putting on her belt with holsters hanging all around it, "Frankly, it's none of your business."

_It most certainly is none of your business._

"Maybe not.. but no one should walk around with that much of a burden on their shoulders", He mumbled and Rowen stared at him sternly, as if she was contemplating what had just left his mouth. His words sounded so much like someone she used to know. But that was a very long time ago.

She took a deep breath and then forced out a smile that could fool anyone but a Winchester, and Adam, he could see right through it.

"Come on, they're probably waiting for us", She said and pulled on the leather jacket before grabbing her duffelbag from the bed.

Her fingers swept across the hilt of the knife that was pressed firmly into it's holster that hung from her belt. Rowen watched Adam as he grabbed his own stuff and exited the hotelroom before her. She turned around and looked around it with a watchful eye, just making sure there was nothing forgotten. She was a well trained hunter who never left any trace of where she had been. If she did, it would only hurt her in the long run. She had learned that the hard way, she figured and her mind traveled to the scars that covered her, and a shudder was sent down her spine that made her feel instantly cold.

"Rowen, we're leaving!", She heard Dean's dark voice scream from somewhere outside the room, she'd recognize his voice anywhere - they'd known eachother that long.

"I'm coming!", She called back and let her eyes sweep the room once more before she turned off the lights and exited.

Sam and Adam were already down by the Impala loading in their stuff in the trunk of the car. Dean was waiting for Rowen by the stairs, so she locked the door and hurried after him while struggling with the duffelbag that kept slipping off her shoulder.

"I can take that for you", Dean offered as they walked down the stairs to the bottomfloor, but Rowen merely snorted.

"I'm stronger than you, remember?", She retorted and put her nose up in the air.

Dean laughed and patted Rowen's back, "Yeah right, girlie."

"I could slice you up with my knife if you want me to", She glared at him, but there was a playful glimmer in her eye and it only took a few seconds before she burst out into a smile. Dean had that effect on Rowen, no matter what he'd make her smile.

"I have a gun, who do you think has the quicker draw?"

Rowen stuck her tongue out at him, "Still, I'm way stronger than you are, so I think I can handle my own bag."

"You're a chick, it's like common knowledge that guys are stronger than you", Dean smiled and Rowen rolled her eyes before staring down at the parking lot.

_Oh, Dean.. if you only knew_, she thought to herself and without realizing it, she found herself smiling as Adam looked up at her. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something about the third Winchester brother that awoke feelings in her that she hadn't felt for quite some time. Whether they were good or bad, that was a whole other story.

* * *

The rain splattered heavily against the windows of the car as they sped along the highway, somewhere in Indiana and in the middle of the night. Adam was tired but couldn't manage to fall asleep. Occasionally he'd look over at Rowen who had her body turned sideways towards him with her knees pulled up against her chest on the seat of the car. If Dean wouldn't have been focusing on navigating through the heavy rain, Adam had no doubt that he'd scolded her for it. His dear Impala, and everything. He figured that she was asleep, as her eyes were closed and she hadn't spoken for what seemed like hours, but that was until he had realized that she was tapping her fingers against the seat, a sign that she was clearly awake. Adam couldn't figure out what she was tapping her fingers to, maybe it was just a random tune in her head.

"Jesus fuck, I can't see anything in this goddamn weather", Dean cursed from behind the wheel, and Adam leaned back with his eyes closed as his older brother went off in a rant of swearwords and something about Castiel too.

"I can drive if you want to", Sam countered absentmindedly as he stared out the window into the pitch black night, but Dean just snorted out loud.

"You should be asleep", The oldest Winchester muttered, "That sign says there's an hotel a few miles from here. We'll stop there for the night, or until the storm has passed."

Adam opened his eyes just in time to get a glance of the sign Dean spoke of. The headlights of the car lit up the sign and he could clearly read 'The Elysian Fields Hotel - 5 miles' on it. Not that Adam could sleep, but he hoped that the hotel had at least a coffee shop or something where he could get something to eat, as his stomach roared in protest against Adam not having eaten since the hamburger that morning. He'd downed a bottle of apple juice earlier, but really, he hadn't been hungry until now.

"I hope they have food, I'm starving", He mused and Dean chuckled.

"I could go for some pie right now."

Then something strange happened. As soon as the bright neon sign stating the name of the hotel came into view, Rowen shot up in her seat with her eyes wide open in what looked like horror. Her feet had dropped from the seat almost as fast as her eyes had opened and her hair had shook with the jerked motion.

"Where are we going?", She asked and stared at the neon sign, "Not to the hotel, right?"

"Um, yeah. The storm is so bad, we're just gonna stop there until it clears up", Dean looked confused at Rowen over his shoulder, "Don't wanna be driving in this weather."

"I can drive", Rowen answered almost before Dean had finished talking, and she was speaking in ultra-rapid, "There's really no need to stop."

"Don't be ridiculous, Rowen", He continued with a snort not unlike the one he'd directed at Sam earlier, "You can't drive."

There was a slight flush to Rowen's cheek that was only emphasized by her red hair, "I am a _perfectly_ fine driver!"

Dean shook his head as he turned into the parking lot of the hotel and found a spot among several cars of different brands, models and colors all lined up neatly. They all got out and grabbed their stuff as quickly as they could before rushing towards the entrance so they wouldn't get soaked in the heavy rain. Rowen a bit, or more like _a lot_ more reluctant than the others, but she followed them inside anyway.

Adam stopped alongside his brothers and Rowen as soon as they were inside and Dean looked around mildly surprised by the luxurious inside of the hotel.

"Nice digs for once", He commented and both Adam and Sam nodded in agreement - it was nice.

Rowen on the other hand was grasping the shoulder strap on her duffelbag as it was made out of pure gold, and looked like she might throw up. Adam walked next to her as they headed across the lobby towards the check-in desk where a tall man was typing quickly at a computer.

"Are you alright?", Adam asked her and her head snapped to his direction quickly, she was fiddling and acting very strange.

"Of course I'm fine", Rowen replied in a hurry, "I just think that there is no need to stop. I offered to drive, didn't I? Yeah, I did. So... we didn't have to stop."

"We'd blown off the road if we'd gone any further", Adam joked but Rowen didn't seem to find it funny at the moment, "Just relax, Bobby will be there tomorrow too."

Dean and Sam had finished talking to the man at the desk and Dean threw Adam a key to a hotelroom and he started following them towards the hallway which was lined with doors leading to the various rooms. It took him almost a minute to realize Rowen wasn't with him, and when he glanced back he saw her almost halfway over the desk making angry gestures at the receptionist while speaking in a hushed tone.

"Hey Rowen, are you coming or what?", He called to her with furrowed eyebrows, and both Rowen's and the receptionist's head snapped up in surprise.

"In a minute!", She responded and turned her head back to the receptionist, leaving Adam even more confused.

* * *

"She'll be happy to know that you brought them here, all three of them even", He spoke with a coy smirk plastered on his thin lips that made Rowen want to smash his face in or stab him with her knife - not that the knife would actually kill him, but the pain would still be there.

"_I_ didn't bring them here, I tried to _stop_ them from entering this motherfucking trap", She barked at him in a low and hushed tone and clenched her fists.

"Rowen, Rowen, Rowen.. You must remember the loyalty you pledged to her, to them even."

She slammed her hand down onto the shiny surface of the desk, even angrier, "I regretted that loyalty the minute they branded me, leaving me to live like this."

"But, don't you remember the magnificent gift that you were given?", He asked feigning disbelief that she'd be regretful of pledging _them_ her loyalty.

"Don't fucking start with me, Mercury, this is no gift. This is a curse. And believe me, I'll get them out of here before you fucking monsters can even touch them", She glanced over at Adam who was growing impatient with having to wait for her, "You just wait."

Mercury shrugged his shoulders, "If you say so, but I don't think that your-"

"Go to hell", Rowen almost growled and he smiled.

"Already been there."

Rowen jerked away from the desk and hurried over to Adam, but not before giving the man at the desk a long lasting glare.

"What was that about?", Adam asked with furrowed eyebrows and Rowen shrugged.

"He tried to tell me my haircolor was fake", She lied and received an even more confused look from Adam, at which she jokingly patted his back.

On the inside however, she was panicking over how to get the Winchesters out of the hotel as quickly as she possibly could.


End file.
